Lufthansa Systems supports research at the DLR

German Aerospace Center uses NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched

Raunheim, September 21, 2017 – Lufthansa Systems is supporting the work of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The IT provider is making its NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched flight planning solutions available to the researchers at the DLR. The scientists are using the software from Lufthansa Systems to develop new air transport concepts and explore ways of improving the efficiency of network and flight planning. Airlines will thus benefit from lower costs, and passengers will enjoy greater punctuality.

“We are very interested in practical research and are pleased to be able to use NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched, since the two solutions are already employed by more than 70 airlines,” said Klaus Luetjens, head of Air Transport Operations and Infrastructures in the department Air Transportation Systems at the DLR. Airlines use NetLine/Plan to create optimized flight plans as part of their network planning strategy. The software simulates new connections, generates forecasts for passenger streams based on market data, and calculates the effects on costs and revenues. NetLine/Sched helps airlines with flight schedule management. It supports the evaluation of what-if scenarios prior to flight operations and automatically calculates their cost-effectiveness.

At the beginning of the project, the experts from Lufthansa Systems prepared the data basis, installed the software on DLR computers this summer and then trained the scientists. Following the successful completion of the project, the DLR researchers can now use the two NetLine products to quickly simulate various air transport concepts. For example, they can analyze how the development of a faster aircraft would affect flight plans and the airline market in general. The project will run until 2020, and the results will be published and made available to the industry.

Lufthansa Systems and the DLR have cooperated since 2016. “We benefit from their scientific findings, as data science is becoming increasingly important in aviation. Thanks to our cooperation with the DLR, we can further develop our products in a targeted way and continue to be an innovation leader,” said Pascal Mougnon, Head of Network Planning Solutions at Lufthansa Systems.

The research portfolio of the DLR ranges from basic research to the development of products for tomorrow. Since 2016, Lufthansa Systems and the DLR have been collaborating on a project for developing more robust flight plans. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) is supporting the project as part of its federal aviation research program. The scientific and technical knowledge they have acquired together will strengthen German industry and technology in general and the aviation sector in particular.